On Unix systems, you start a remote login session to a remote computer
by typing the command

telnet hostname

You substitute the IP hostname or address of the remote computer for
hostname.

You will be prompted to enter a user account and password on the remote
system. Once authenticated, your terminal window is now in continuous
communication with the remote system, and you can enter commands and
run programs on the remote system.

When you log out from the remote system, the
telnet
program will automatically exit on your local system.

Command line implementations of
telnet
have an "escape character", usually
CTRL-]
(hold down the "Control" key and press the "]" key),
that temporarily suspends
the connection to the remote machine and lets you give commands to the local
telnet
program. The most important use is to quit
telnet
(and thus close the connection) when your terminal gets frozen on the
remote system.
To do this, press the escape character and then give the command
quit
to the
telnet>
prompt that will be printed on the screen.
For sessions orginating from Macintosh or Windows systems, you can
simply close the terminal session window to abort a frozen connection.

Newer versions of
telnet
on Unix systems, Macintosh computers, and Windows PCs will
automatically propagate your terminal type to the remote system, but
for some older
telnet
implementations, you may need to set terminal type on the remote
system, either in response to a prompt, or with the command
set term=type
(on Unix remote systems running the C-shell, like pangea).
Try the actual type of your terminal first, for example,
tvi925
or
vt102.
If
vi
or other programs that manipulate the screen do not seem to work,
then try setting your terminal to type
vt100
on the remote system. This is the most common terminal type standard.

telnet
only provides a text terminal connection to the remote system.
If you need full graphics capabilities, you should use the
X Window system.

Note that
telnet
simply passes your login password over the network as
clear text. In some circumstances, this can be captured by a "packet
sniffing" program running on a machine on the same network as you or
your remote client, and then used by an unauthorized person to login to
your account. On the Stanford campus, the recommended
telnet
client programs for desktop computers
(MacLeland/Samson
and
PCLeland/Samson)
use the
kerberos authentication method
to provide completely
encrypted
telnet
sessions to guard against this problem. Another common remote login
program that accomplishes the same result is
"ssh" (secure shell).
Most campus servers support this as well as kerberos.

More information about secure logins to pangea can be found in the page
describing
pangea accounts.